TARANAKI HARDCORE

By Pete McNae

Tyler Walker owned a unicorn. Not the mythical beast – they're not real – but its mechanical equivalent.

Taranaki's Walker had an amazing run in a stockcar nicknamed “Bruce”, a car like the original Tony McLanachan Silver Bullet or Craig Boote's 7N Chev that offered a rare blend of reliability, resilience and race pace. In sports talk, a player with an almost-impossible combination of attributes rarely seen in one package has become known as a “unicorn”. Bruce fitted the definition.

Walker has been 1NZ in the stockcar class, and 2NZ, and there was success at national teams championship, NZGP,  North Island and club level with many of those results coming in the same car. Not surprisingly, Walker had to swallow hard on the day he listed Bruce for sale.

“I won't say it was an easy decision, but the car was its peak value then, with the results we had managed and the NZ number on the side,” Walker said. “To get into a superstock, I had to get the maximum return I could from Bruce so the whole lot had to go.”

So it is with his new superstock in tow that the 28-year-old sign writer arrives in Nelson this weekend for the two nights of the PTS Superstock Stampede from 6pm on Friday and Saturday. The event, backed by the Miers family in Manawatū, has attracted almost every available South Island superstock and a few high-quality cars from the north, with Walker keen to get a better handle on Nelson's Milestone Homes Top of the South Speedway.

He's been here before, twice, in his stockcar days and found the track one of the hardest he's had to learn. Turn one traps you out wide, there are no straights to speak of and turn four gets tight when you least expect it. Walker qualified for the NZ title here a few summers ago and also competed at a cash meeting after another championship trip, but he's yet to totally get to grips with Nelson.

And he's trying to do it in a brand-new car that's experiencing a few teething issues. At the time of writing, “Roger” the Rees-Hartley133S superstock had completed one race under full power -- and won it in the strong Stratford field. But it has also dropped cylinders, developed a major vibration and generally behaved badly.

“That race I won, it exceeded expectations,” Walker said. “We had missed the first two races on the night then went out in the third and chased down some pretty fast cars so we know what we have, we are just working through new car bugs and putting in the hours to get the car to perform consistently.”

He was relieved when testing showed the dropped cylinders weren't the sign of an expensive engine issue.

“We have an unreal list of sponsors but there is no money tree,” Walker said. “An engine failure right now would really set us back.”

Walker's dad Paul was a keen competitor who parked his own speedway career to put Tyler in a ministock when he was old enough to get out there. After three seasons in the youth class and one in adult ministocks, the family team (including mum Leanne and, later, partner Josie) shifted over to stockcars, building their way towards “Bruce”. It was in that car that Walker became a 1NZ in 2018/19, backing that up with a runner-up finish the following season behind Nelson's Ben Smith in Greymouth. Chuck in a Grand Prix podium and two teams racing championships with the Stratford Stormers and Walker was all over the stockcar class.

“There's a time when you feel like you have achieved all you wanted to do and the motivation starts to drop away,” he said. “The goal was always to race a superstock so the stockcar went on the market when it was at its maximum value and we bought a super, mostly for the running gear, raced that last season to get a taste, then stripped the running gear and went with the new Rees chassis for this season.

“If I could have kept the stockcar, I'd be racing both because it was the best car I have ever driven or owned but it's money, it always comes back to money.

“Most of the success in stockcars was down to hours and hours by dad in the shed. He's so meticulous and we have always tried to do all of it ourselves, dad, me and the crew guys. I don't think you get those results from luck, you need to put in the work.”

So the Dairymaster Racing team will get the superstock issues sorted, then, look out. Walker is humble though, saying the spike in superstock numbers and quality means any one of 50 drivers could come through in the bigger North Island meetings. Down here this weekend, he's looking forward to racing against some different drivers and renewing old stockcar acquaintances with the likes of Harley Robb and Adam Hall.

With no New Zealand titles being staged this year due to Covid constrictions, superstock teams racing becomes another red letter day on the calendar. After national success with the Stormers, Walker got a run with the Glen Eagles in Palmy as Robb and Jayden Ward secured a seat for him but the Taranaki Hardcore driver wants to crack his hometown Scrappers squad.

“Four out of the five Stormers have moved up to supers, which is cool but the team is in great shape and have a bunch of guys who are bringing Stratford back to the top, so getting a look-in will be hard. Palmy is where the biggest crowds and the biggest rivalries are though – it's a huge part of why we changed classes, just to get on the other side of that fence.”

• Tyler Walker is grateful for support from dad and mum, Paul and Leanne, partner Josie Harrington, crew guys Liam and Marcus and a dizzying list of sponsors, led by Dairymaster Milking Systems NZ, who first backed Paul Walker two decades ago and haven't missed a season since. Other key backers include Walker's employer Signright, Munchies Express, Hymark Central, Bullitt Fabrications, USA Specialty Products, Top Stitch, Sean Puttock Building, Armourshield Coatings, RE Automotive, Stratford Mowers and Chainsaws, Moo Mad Relief Milking Services, Planit Dezign, MCK Photography, Repco, Kiser Civil, McFall Fuels, Rees Race Cars and Hartley Motorsport.

• This weekend's race programme for the PTS Superstock Stampede also features a huge field in the Cando Fishing Ministock Mania, the Richmond Exhaust and Radiator Specialists streetstock triples, the mighty historic stockcars, backed by Donaldson Civil,  plus Saturday's open club champs for stockcars and open racing for the TQ midgets and sidechairs with the production saloons running Friday only. As the Nelson Speedway Association is now running under the national traffic light system, vaccine passes are required for all competitors, officials, volunteers, track staff and spectators. Please be patient with gate staff – they are only following rules.

• For those unable to attend in person, the meeting will be livestreamed by the team from The Pits Media. Visit their website at https://www.thepits.racing.org.nz

Track photos: Spinna Photography, Michael Espiner

Article added: Monday, 06 December 2021